A Bit of Langstroth Hive History

Here is another great post from Scot:

The hive type is called a Langstroth named after the Reverend Lazurus Lesley
Langstroth who developed it in the mid 1800s.

The frame is actually called a Hoffman frame, also named after the man who developed it. Langstroth's original frames were quite a bit different and more like boxes, and Hoffman developed a way for the frames to provide the spacing, ensure parallel orientation but still allow the bees to walk around the edges of the comb from all sides (minus the two short shoulders at the top). Further Chaz Dadant (who immigrated from France to Hamilton, IL) developed the foundation that became popular after the fact. Langstroth and Hoffman both developed their frames before the advent of foundation and their frame designs were both foundationless originally. CC Miller (who gave up a career in medicine to become a beekeeper instead) is often credited with experimenting with these and various other developments and getting all these guys talking.
Call me picky if you like, and I am sorry about it, but I think it's important that we learn our history in beekeeping to honor those who made these developments. Does it really matter one wit to the practice of beekeeping? No not really, but now that we are in the days of beekeeping trial and invention again and I believe it is important to know our history and the proper terms for different sorts of similar equipment. Besides, there is a LOT of reading material from back then and it's quite
educational. In fact, I don't read any modern beekeeping material anymore. It's all geared towards chemical beekeeping management and missing all of the wisdom of following the bees.

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Scot McPherson, CISSP, MCSA
McPherson Family Farms
Le Claire, IA, USA